1KHO 133: Learning Outside the Lines: The Benefits of Multi-Age, Child-Led Outdoor Experiences | Erin Majeske, Founder of The Barefeet Farm School

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode I talked with Erin Majeske, the founder of The Barefeet Farm School - one of only seventeen licensed outdoor preschools in the United States. Erin shares her journey towards creating a child-led learning environment that embraces the power of voluntary play and multi-age situations. Erin explains how and why she had to learn to let go of data collection and control in order to truly embrace child-directed experiences. She talks about how it was difficult to step back and watch the children play without intervening, but ultimately recognized the value in giving children the space to learn on their own terms. The Barefoot Farm School provides children with a unique opportunity to learn about nature while fostering a love for the outdoors. Erin started with just three students and now her summer camps for kids are sold out each year by February. She explains how you can get your own camp or outdoor preschool up and running! Erin also discusses the benefits of being in an outdoor environment, including quieter surroundings and a reduction in overstimulation that can trigger fight or flight responses in children. Learn more about Erin and The Barefeet Farm School here >> www.barefeetfarmschool.com And on Instagram here >> @barefeetfarmschool Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the 1,000 Hours Outside Podcast. My name is Jimmy Uret. I'm the founder of 1,000 hours
0:06.2	outside and we have a very special guest today who runs a summer camp and she runs actually year-round programming and it's fairly
0:15.1	new and she is someone who actually can teach you how to do that. Aaron Majeski
0:20.0	welcome. Thank you I'm so excited to be here. I'm so thrilled to have you. So you have an actual school. The
0:26.9	bare feet farm school that you started within the past five years and it has become so
0:32.4	popular. I know you sell out for your summer
0:35.1	camp in February and so you are trying to spread the word that this is something
0:39.7	doable that other people could join in and do and we do have a lot of people that are
0:44.6	asking you know are there ways that we can make a living with getting outside and I
0:49.1	know that you know in the 19 early 1900s there's some statistic that something like 90% of work was
0:55.3	done outside and now hardly any work is done outside most of it's done inside and
1:00.0	so I think this will be so interesting for people to listen to.
1:03.8	So I guess I would just love to start by hearing your story.
1:06.5	You're out in Washington and you started something small and it has grown and continues to grow.
1:14.0	So tell us where you began.
1:16.0	Yeah, I'd love to.
1:17.6	Our school started in 2020.
1:19.9	I was teaching indoors.
1:22.2	I was teaching at a preschool. had all the classic preschool things a
1:25.8	curriculum and like cute little songs and tracing name journals and we went
1:31.3	outside for half an hour a day and then COVID happened I think that was a big
1:35.6	transformation for a lot of folks so I needed a summer job and I invited people to property that my family owns for what was called summer camp with Aaron.
	...

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